Cleaning and protecting an inkjet printhead assembly is an aspect relating to proper maintenance of an inkjet printing mechanism, such as a printer or a plotter. Typically, inkjet printing mechanisms include a service station mechanism that is mounted within the printer chassis for cleaning and protecting the inkjet printhead assembly. In operation, the printhead assembly is moved over the station to allow certain predefined maintenance operations to be performed.
A wiper system is usually included in a service station and is used during printing periods. One type of wiper system uses a biasing force to push a wiper blade into engagement with the printhead to enable wiping of the printhead. The wiping removes accumulated debris and ink spatter from the nozzles. However, this pushing involves using a relative amount of force, which can change the alignment of the printhead assembly.
Further, wiper systems can contribute significantly to the width of a printer. Reducing the overall width of the printer is desirable because consumer demand has increased for smaller home and office printers and compact living room printers for entertainment systems. In addition, since control over certain aspects of the printhead assembly can be expensive, such as the size of the printhead or the expense of electrical components incorporated into the design, service stations that do not take these other components into consideration can increase the overall printhead assembly manufacturing costs.
The present invention includes as one embodiment a cleaning system for an inkjet printhead, including a wiper and a media detection device coupled to the wiper for activating engagement of the wiper with the printhead when no media is detected and for deactivating the wiper when media contacts the media detection device.